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My new work as a groom in Arizona

Where : in the core of nowhere in Arizona, 45 minutes South from Tucson (2nd biggest city in Arizona) and 20 Km from Mexico. The stable belongs to the litle town of Amado ; population : 295. Just to compare : Clohars-Carnoët : 4 057, Espelette : 1 885, Québec city : 521 993, Lévis Saint-Nom: 1 705 !!!! But anyway, the paradox is that we are also in the middle of…. The highway…. Rum, as a result, it’s never really silent, on the other hand, it’s easy to go somewhere else…. Because we are at the border with Mexico, there are a lot of illegal mexicans people on the property… The house is always locked… Strange atmosphere. FORTUNATELY, we are allowed to give them water (even if I would like to give them more → food etc).

With who : I share a room in the house with an other working 24-year-old student from Finland (= finnish accent!!). Bobbi is a canadian girl (I’m not totally in a new world), specialize in dressage and jumping and Gus is the perfect icon of the moovie « The horse Whisperer » with a cow-boy style. They both can teach me a lot and have a great relationship with horses.

Food : lucky me, we eat really healthy. Even if there is meet every dinner, it’s come from their own cattle !

Schedules : 5:30 am to noon and 5pm to 6pm because it’s too hot to work during the afternoon. I’m out before the sun rises over the mountains. Each morning it’s a terrific show. I dedicate my afternoons working my toefl and taking nap !!! It’s a six day week. And… At 8:30 pm, it’s already bed time. Wahou, I suddenly felt alone the first night in the living room at 9:00pm without anybody then… I developed the habit. HOW far from my everyday life in Montreal!!!!!

Work : duties include stable work, mucking out stalls/corrals; feeding/handling/grooming horses; handling of foals/weanlings. Horses spend a majority of their time outside, so stall duties are very minimal. Days are long and hard and we also do shit !!! Luckily, I’m riding 1, 2 or 3 horses per day and improving my skills a lot. NO salary, only room and board…. Unfair deal for sure but anyway, here I am.

Advices : sunscreen is very important. The sun is very strong and can easily burn skin much quicker than we thought. Water is also very important. The desert is very dry and we can quickly dehydrate. I think I drink 5 liters per day and have the impression to be a dried vegetable after one hour work. Ahah. Also, impressive thunders !!

🙂 –> Arizona is the only western state that does not observe daylight saving time from spring to early fall !!

😎 –> The highway from Mexico to Tucson is the only highway in USA in kilometers : vestige of an attempt to swich to the metric functioning